The Puffer Forum

1. 7.5, 0, 0, ~10, 50%-70% PWC per week
2. Heavily planted 10g, 1 red eye puffer, 2 emerald rasboras, 2 otos, 3-5 pygmy cories, lots of snails
3. Prime, excel, PPS-pro fert regiment. Micro food for rasboras and cories, occasional small algae wafer. Frozen bloodworms for puffer, some daphnia. I also keep IALs in the tank.
4. No changes
5. Tank is 2 years old roughly, was cycled via seeded biomax

Hi all! I got a red eye puffer about a month ago and she has been doing great up until a few days ago. She used to come up to the surface when I was near to be fed and would actively chase down her little bloodworm meals. Recently however she seems to be lying near the bottom a lot and hardly moving. Her eyes still follow me but she refuses the bloodworms I dangle near her. Her stomach has always seemed a bit sunken (never rounded) so I am concerned she has internal parasites. I am new to puffers so what is the best thing to do in this situation? Am I right to guess she has IPs? What meds are recommended and how do I get her to consume it if she is not eating? Thanks all and let me know if you need more info!

Don't you think that the tank is rather too small and seriously overstocked? Are you planning on re-homing some/many of those fish?

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Pig is in a 44g tank, your 10g is half the recommended minimum size. I should think she's incredibly stressed.

Any chance you can get a picture of the puffer and the tank?

Definitely sounds like she is going down hill. They tank is over stocked which is probably a factor.

Untill you figure out what is wrong, increase water changes to daily. When you do a water change does she perk up?

Thank you for the replies. I doubled checked -- there should be three pygmy cories in there. My apologies as well as I should have specified that this current situation is not a permanent home for my red eye (which I believe is a female Carinotetraodon irrubesco). I am moving in October and once settled will be setting up a 20g L or my spare 12g L for her, but until then her home will be the 10g. I would have taken the other fish in there out but they are extremely hard to catch because the tank is so heavily planted. Bioload-wise I do not think the tank is overstocked at all, but would the other fish simply being in there stress out the puffer? I am new to puffers but am aware that they typically belong in species tanks, but I always assumed that was more for the protection of the other fish. Please correct me if I'm wrong -- just trying my best to learn here.

@purplecandle I'll do another water change when I get home from work today (in about 6 hours), the last one I did (2 days ago) she did not perk up. I'll also get a pic.

The issue with Puffers and bioloads is that even the slightest bit off is really bad because they sort of "absorb" the bad stuff through thier skin. The don't have the protection of scales.

With

Thank goodness it is heavily planted, that is probably helping you a great deal.

Puffers have a very high mortality rate as it is...so any problem can cause death.

Her symptoms do sound a bit like IPs. And it's bad she won't eat. Have you tried soaking in garlic juice?

IUf you suspect iPs, a pic would be helpful.

Pufferpunk wrote:IUf you suspect iPs, a pic would be helpful.

Sorry, will be getting a pic when I get home from work later.

I am confident in my water quality because of how heavily the tank is planted, the frequency and quantity of my PWCs, and the readings of my regular water tests (API master test kit). I haven't tried the garlic juice method yet. Pardon my ignorance but is the garlic juice something I can make myself with normal garlic or is it something that I buy? Thanks a ton everyone.

I think Kent's make a brand you can buy at the pet store

But I just buy a glass jar of minced garlic from the dollar store. Basically it is the water that the garlic been soaking in.

I just crush a clove with a spoon & soak it along with the meds & food.

Water quality is only one factor. Stress from pre-existing established tankmates is quite another. I would have very few if any hopes of adapting a wild-caught puffer to life in captivity in that tank even if it were in my own care. The stresses are just too great to a wild-caught fish in such a set-up. Puffers are not goldfish or guppies, from now to October is about 5 months too long, effectively forever.. It the fish cannot be re-home immediately, I would recommend returning it. If the fish does have IPs, the chances are reduced even more. That is another stress factor to be overcome.